The subject matter herein relates generally to connector modules for electrical connectors.
Some electrical systems utilize a connector module, such as a receptacle or header connector, to interconnect a circuit board and at least one pluggable circuit card. The connector module is mounted to the circuit board. The connector module includes a housing that holds electrical terminals or contacts. The electrical terminals are conductive and configured to engage contact pads of the circuit card at one end and terminate to conductive elements of the circuit board at another end to provide signal pathways between the circuit card and circuit board. The housing guides the circuit card into engagement with the electrical terminals and retains the electrical connection between the circuit card and the electrical terminals.
In typical connector modules, at least part of the housing is conductive. Since the housing holds the electrical terminals, if the electrical terminals make contact with a conductive portion of the housing, a short circuit may be created which negatively affects the performance of the connector module and could potentially damage the connector module, the circuit card, and/or the circuit board. To prevent the electrical terminals from contacting conductive portions of the housing, the electrical terminals in some known connector modules are overmolded in a non-conductive overmold material. The overmold material electrically isolates the electrical terminals within the overmold material from the conductive portions of the housing. However, there are recognized problems associated with overmolding electrical terminals, especially when the connector module is designed to be compatible with small scale circuit cards, such as subscriber identification module (SIM) cards.
For example, during the overmolding process, the electrical terminals are placed in an insert mold and plastic or another overmold material is injected into the insert mold through flow passages. However, for small scale electrical terminals, the diameters of the flow passages may be so small that the plastic does not flow readily therethrough. Thus, the process may have to be run at a higher pressure or at higher temperatures than are desired in order to lower the viscosity of the plastic. As a result of such modifications, the plastic may be prone to degradation, shrinkage, and the like, which can impair the integrity of the finished product. In addition, the electrical terminals may be overmolded as a lead frame in which the electrical terminals are coupled to each other. After overmolding, the electrical terminals need to be mechanically separated from each other to electrically isolate the individual electrical terminals. It may be difficult to separate the electrical terminals from each other when the connections that link the electrical terminals are covered by the overmold material. A need remains for a connector module that electrically isolates conductive portions of the housing from the electrical terminals without overmolding the electrical terminals.